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Officer Terence Sutton, 40, and former Lt. Andrew Zabavsky, 56, were both found guilty by a US District Court jury in DC on multiple charges in connection to a police pursuit on Oct. 23, 2020, in Northwest DC that led to the death of Karon Hylton-Brown.
This week, a federal judge announced that Sutton had been sentenced to 66 months in prison, and Zabavsky received 48 months following their convictions.
According to prosecutors, the jury determined that Sutton caused Hylton-Brown’s death by driving a police vehicle “in conscious disregard for an extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury to (him).”
The jury further found that Sutton and Zabavsky conspired and sought to hide from the circumstances of the fatal crash with Metropolitan Police Department officials as details emerged in the case.
At the time of the fatal police pursuit, Sutton was assigned to the Crime Suppression Team in the department's Fourth Police District, which was overseen by Zabavsky.
Prosecutors say that the pursuit began at approximately 10 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 23, 2020, when Hylton-Brown was driving a moped on the sidewalk in the Brightwood Park area of Northwest Washington without a helmet.
That pursuit continued for nearly a dozen blocks and into an alley near the 700 block of Kennedy Street NW, which resulted in Hylton-Brown being struck by an oncoming vehicle.
"As Hylton-Brown lay unconscious in the middle of the street in a pool of his own blood, Sutton and Zabavsky agreed to cover up what Sutton had done to prevent any further investigation of the incident," court documents state.
Hylton-Brown suffered severe head trauma and died days later on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020.
Following the fatal moped pursuit, Sutton and Zabavsky agreed to cover up what they had done to prevent further investigation.
According to prosecutors, they did not preserve the crime scene, and let the striking driver leave within 20 minutes. They turned off their body cameras and conferred privately before leaving.
No other MPD official was called in to supervise the scene.
The cover up continued back at the police station, where the pair misled their commanding officer about the situation and downplayed its seriousness, denying that a police chase even took place, and omitting the critical injuries suffered from the 20-year-old moped rider.
At the time he was murdered, Hylton-Brown was doing nothing illegal, according to Alexis Brown, the father of their child, who was 3 months old at the time of his death.
“He got on a registered motorcycle to go get his car keys, which he lost, he had no gun or drugs on him,” Brown wrote on a GoFundMe that raised nearly $14,000 after Hylton-Brown’s death.
“The FBI follows the rule of law and works to hold those accountable who violate the law, no matter who they are,” FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge David Geist. “The community and fellow law enforcement officers deserve trusted officers that do not abuse their positions of trust and power or put the public at risk."
Prosecutors said that Sutton was found guilty of second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct, and obstruction of justice. Zabavsky was guilty of conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice.
Both were also ordered by a judge to serve three years of supervised probation upon their releases.
"The jury in this case found the defendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for their roles in the murder of Karon Hylton Brown and a related cover up, affirming that what happened here was a serious crime,” US Attorney Matthew Graves stated.
“Public safety requires public trust.
"Crimes like this erode that trust and are a disservice to the community and the thousands of officers who work incredibly hard, within the bounds of the Constitution, to keep us safe.”
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